Wednesday, 31 May 2017

I hope you will forget me for stating the obvious: May is about to end. I have ambivalent feelings about this month. It is a transitory one between spring and summer, it can have the best as well as the worst of either of them. Which is exactly what happened this year here: May started as a cold spring, then a warm summer, then a too hot summer, to come back to something more bearable. And now I am waiting for summertime with both impatience and dread. And you, what do you think of May? How did you experience this one?

Tuesday, 30 May 2017

The mayflies are back since a few days. There are swarms everywhere, patches of them flying when you walk by. Just when May is about to end. Of course, they will not leave with the month. I guess they never stay for long, so I should not complain, but just the same: I hate mayflies.

Monday, 29 May 2017

Recently, Blonde Tickler gave me the sweetest present: this drawing, which she has done especially for me.No but how adorable is she, and how much does she know me and share my love for Halloween, so much so that about five months away from our favourite holiday, she still draw this! What surprised me the most is that it has an uncanny resemblance to what my brothers and I used to draw in our spare time at her age. Pictures of haunted houses, forests, graveyards, castles, all full of ghosts, witches, gruesome devils, etc. And like her we draw them months in advance. So this takes me back from my childhood.

Sunday, 28 May 2017

By any practical means (and that it might change notwithstanding) summer is here now: it is hot, it is sunny, it is nice... And that means for me listening to summery music. In other words, I often listen to Harry Belafonte these days. I listen to Belafonte as soon as it is hot outside since my twenties. My brothers and I spent many summer evenings listening to him. So tonight I decided to share Jamaica Farewell. Because summertime and the island of the West Indies have their own kind of melancholy.

Before I read this (because it ha snot arrived yet), I have started reading another book which had been gathering dust on my bookshelves for far too long. Believe it or not, I bought it back in 2001, in Provence, and I have not read it once. I think I had kept it for my next time there, which never happened. Now the book is about myths and legends from there, as you can easily tell even if you do not understand French, but I mainly bought it eager to know more about the Tarasque, a sort of dragon (or a dragon cousin) that is the emblematic monster of Provence and who terrorized the place back in the old days. You can see a statue of the mythical monster on the front cover. I knew about the Tarasque since childhood, but my knowledge of the beast never developed as much as I wanted. I intend to become a specialist of the Tarasque this summer, that is my objective. And then I will be able to tell new stories to the Ticklers and eventually my son.

Saturday, 27 May 2017

It is not technically summer yet, but it feels summery enough and this is a bank holiday weekend, so now is a good excuse as any to publish this strip from Calvin and Hobbes. Back when I was much younger and summer was a long holiday, I welcomed it. And this is pretty much how I felt about it.

Friday, 26 May 2017

It looks and feels more and more like summer and I am finally having a better idea of what I will read for the season. There should be a good deal of adventures and crime fiction. Although I read crime fiction all year round, I read surprisingly little so far this year and well, it's might be a reader's cliché to read this sort of genre during summertime, but it does fit the season nicely. And what better way to start it than by reading South African's most famous crime writer Deon Meyer. There is just something about blood and violence in the implacable heat and sun of the African continent. So I have ordered and intend to start Dead Before Dying in the upcoming days. It is his first novel and the only one published in English that I have not read. Anyway, I am looking forward to it and will try to blog about it.

Thursday, 25 May 2017

As my readership knows, I recently bought myself, in a rare moment of retail therapy, a Fitbit. expensive, state of the art, gunmetal stainless steal coloured (yes, that thing is elegant) Fitbit. I, who don't do any sport and barely any physical activities. So I set it up and since then I have been addicted to it. I am barely scraping its functionalities, but the little I use it for, I wouldn't depart from it for an empire. I check the number of steps I take in a day, the calories I burn and before bed I do relaxing breathing exercises with it. Oh, and it tells time too. I have no intention to turn Vraie Fiction into a fitness blog, I find people who obsess about fitness both tedious and often insecure, but the Fitbit will be mentioned again from time to time, as I discover it.

Wednesday, 24 May 2017

Last weekend, I finished reading a novel. I will not tell you which one I read, it will be a surprise for a future post. A few weeks ago, I could not choose what to read, so I picked up the two books that were interesting me the most and asked Blonde Tickler who was visiting us with her parents which one I should choose. So she decided for me. When you cannot decide, surrendering to the ideas of a child is a way like any other to go forward with things. But it means that I will soon need to choose a new book to read. New books in fact, for the weeks and months ahead. Seasonal books, as I read seasonal. And, believe it or not, but I found my bookshelves somewhat deprived in summery books. I will however try to behave and read what I have yet to read here, before buying more. Right now, I am getting through some plays until I decide of some longer work. Then I don't know. I might ask Blonde Tickler again.

Tuesday, 23 May 2017

I am sick and tired of this! I hesitated before writing about it, I wanted to avoid clichés, commonplaces, the avalanche of empty words you probably all heard and read. But this is Manchester we are talking about and Manchester has a special place in my heart. I have only been to the city a few times, but for me it is a place of pilgrimage. My favourite writer is from Manchester. So are many English actors I admire. Some of my favourite TV series are set in Manchester. Intellectually and culturally, Manchester is for me the epitome of what is right and good about England. And there are the people. Northern, warm, friendly like they are up there. I am a Northerner from another shore, so I always felt a certain kinship with Mancunians. I have made friends with many of them through the years. And now Manchester, like many cities in the West, has fallen victim of Islamism. You know the excuses you will hear: Western decadence, the carefree appetites for life of the Brits, in this particular case young girls and teenage girls committing the unforgivable sin of going to a pop concert in a desegregated society. So to Hell with the sick, twisted pig who did this cowardly act of devotion. There is nothing else I can do but to say that I stand with all my heart with my Northern friends. This may not bring anyone solace, but if you were attacked, it is also because you are an admirable, lovable lot.

Monday, 22 May 2017

I had wanted to blog about it a while ago, but never got round to it until now. Anyway, our little posh town last year (I think it was last year) got a Greggs counter in one of our petrol station. Sometimes, you don't need much to be happy, or at least to be contented. And this is what happens when I eat something from Greggs. It is one of my guilty pleasures. So when I am both hungry and lazy, I buy myself a tuna sub like the one you see on the picture. This goes way back and it has something to do with my first time in England as a resident. Back in 1999, when I came here to do my Master degree, my very first lunch in England was a tuna sandwich from Greegs. At that time, it was a tuna sandwich and the bread was a bloomer, but still. Nothing tastes like comfort and security like these. So every time I eat a sandwich from there, I think about that first lunch.

Sunday, 21 May 2017

Quick blog post about a way of blogging entirely new to me, and which I am doing live at the moment: I am currently typing this post in the garden, as it is finally warm and sunny enough to enjoy the garden. I am sitting on the chairs from the Mountain Warehouse, little Wolfie is asleep in his pram, it is absolutely lovely. If it was not from the shades I am wearing it would be the perfect way. As I cannot see my screen very well I will keep it short and read a book instead. But suffice to say that I intend to do more of this now that we have our own garden. Instead of guerilla blogging, it will be... well, you tell me what kind of blogging it will be. But it is quite fun.

Saturday, 20 May 2017

This weekend, our little town/big village is having a special "pub in the park" event in its main park. There is gourmet food, real ales, other alcohol, music, apparently plenty of atmosphere and beer and did I say there was beer? Had they done it years before, my wife and I may have been tempted to attend, although the tickets for the event are not cheap. But not this year, for obvious reasons. I would have been tempted to go to discover new beers from microbreweries and enjoy those I already know, but yesterday I thought I would not miss all that much. On the journey back home, the train was jammed with people going and they were already drinking (gin mostly). So I suspect it is going to be a piss up, just like when there is the regatta. So not only we are not going, but we decided to avoid both the town center and the park for the weekend.

Friday, 19 May 2017

Sometimes I notice the most trivial thing and turn it into a blog post. Like now. A few days ago, I was walking back home, I was just leaving the train station when I saw this tie hanging from the metal fence by the business park. Kind of fuchsia pink with blue leafs motifs. And I have kept asking myself since then: who the heck hung it there and why? Okay so it is a bit too colourful for me, but it was around someone's neck, so surely he (although I guess it might be a she) thought it looked good enough to wear. And it was not a hot day so it is unlikely that it was taken off and dropped by mistake. So it is a complete mystery. Moral of the story: sometimes I have time to waste. Seriously.

Thursday, 18 May 2017

My mother recently heard about the Lake District from some friends and has decided that she wants to see it. So my parents are thinking about coming around September. And this is when my wife had a brilliant suggestion: we could rent a cottage big enough and all go as a family. This means little Wolfie would be able to spend precious times with grandparents he does not see in person very often and our little family here could have a true holiday, not merely a staycation, in a place we have not seen since 2010, when I really fell in love with it. And also, the cherry on the sundae: they would be autumnal holidays. Which is as you know my favourite season, and incidentally my mother's too. That she is planning for a visit at around this time is no incidental. The Lake District is beautiful at any time, but must be gorgeous in autumn. Of course nothing is set in stone, but I will have then been working on my new job for a while (if everything goes well) and Wolfie will be old enough to go on longer journeys. So I don't want to count my eggs before they hatch, but we still have a few years when we can take autumnal holidays, so it is a great project.

Wednesday, 17 May 2017

There is something I love about England and it is the many great names one can find in the smallest places. You know how much I love the town of Wallingford. Well, I now discovered that the village opposite Wallingford, on the other side of the River Thames, is called Crowmarsh Gifford, or Crowmarsh for short. Now that is a name! Very much like Crowthorne, which I love a lot. it has crow, the dark and bird of bad omen, and it has marsh, a menacing and dangerous place, full of muddy water and eerie creatures. The name itself is very menacing and evocative. It belongs to a scary story or a D&Dr setting. Again, like Crowthorne. And just like Crowthorne, I have been through Crowmarsh a number of times without even stopping there. And until yesterday, I did not even know its name. Now I intend to correct this one day and visit the village.

Monday, 15 May 2017

As my French readers know already, I might have a new job already, after this one finishes, if everything goes well. I had an interview last week, the easiest one I ever had, and it went very well. So much so in fact that they said at the end of it that they were going to offer me the job. They did so, officiously, but I will wait until I receive a formal offer and sort out the transition from one to the other to celebrate. At the moment, I am touching wood. I don't want to jinx anything. But I am fairly confident. Like I said, I never had such an easy interview. It lasted two hours and a half instead of two and in the end we were already discussing where my desk would be (I chose something facing a window). As for the job itself, without giving too many details now, it will be a lot of work and responsibilities, but also it will make me progress professionally. And the commute should improve slightly. So I am very eager to start.

Sunday, 14 May 2017

The great Cate Blanchett turned 48 today. She does not look a day older than when I first saw her in Elizabeth. This was for me a revelation and I started following her career ever since and became a huge fan. She is still, in my humble opinion (but then I do know a thing or two about acting), the greatest actress alive and maybe of all time. So all hail to the greatest.

Saturday, 13 May 2017

The International Anthony Burgess Foundation invented this word to design the anniversary of the publication of A Clockwork Orange. The novel of my teenage. Nadsat is the slang used by the (anti)hero of the story. You can find about it on social medias with the hashtags #Nadsaturday. So have a real horrorshow Nadsaturday everyone! And read the novel! Or at least start with watching the film. But celebrate.

Friday, 12 May 2017

It is Friday, thus fish Friday, therefore time for fish and chips. Although ironically enough I did not have fish and chips tonight. This picture was taken a few weeks ago. During Lent, I had fish and chips every week or so. I thought I'd be saturated, and I was... Until now. I am really hungry for them again, the quintessential comfort food. You can have fish and chips in pubs and restaurants, but I prefer them from a chips bar like this one, with lots of malt vinegar. Talking of malt vinegar this is what I answered to the woman at the till when she asked how much of it I wanted on my cod: "As long as it can swim in it, I'm happy." I think this deserves to be a great unknown line. Anyway, I encourage everyone to eat fish and chips, Friday or any other day.

Thursday, 11 May 2017

My wife was recently telling me that I don't blog all that much about our son, what kind of a baby he is and what he likes and dislikes. I do think I blog about him fairly often, directly or indirectly, but it is difficult to take every single moment and turn it into a post. But I will try to correct this and spend more time talking about him and his personality. Because even though he is only nearly eight months old, he already has distinctive character. Tonight my own father thought that he really had something of me, and I think he meant more his demeanor than his look. Wolfie smiles and cries like every baby, of course, but he has a very distinctive mischievous smile and a naughty side: he kicks, punches, bites fingers and pulls hair, then laughs when you shout"ouch!" With eyes that seem to say: "Go on, sucker, you know I'm adorable". Sometimes I think he is smarter than us by half. And, while he does not say a distinct word yet, he does "speaks" quite a lot. So young, and already full of attitude.

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

I took this picture in the special steamed train line they have between Totnes and Buckfastleigh in Devon and I am sharing it here because it illustrates my post. So anyway, as you know last week I went to an interview at a company's headquarters about three hours away in train. In the end, I did not get the job, although I think I got fairly close. But on the plus side, once the die had been cast, I could relax and read. I love reading during long train journeys, I find it part of the pleasure of traveling. So at least I experienced this, which I had not done in a very long while.

Tuesday, 9 May 2017

I have two alarm clocks: one that has been with me since I am 19 and one that I bought less than two years ago because I could not find the first one. I use them simultaneously, just in case one would not work because of low battery or old age or something. This morning, neither of the alarm clocks rang. I discovered it when I woke up by myself and feeling refreshed instead of all blurry because I am in a deep sleep and the alarms are ringing. It was 8:25. I had to take a taxi to go to work, having missed the train. I got to the office on time, or at least early enough so nobody noticed I was late. I tried them again tonight and they rang fine. So I blame the gremlins, like I always do when such inexplicable thing happens. Darn gremlins. Can you make any gremlin trap?

Monday, 8 May 2017

I found this meme on the many Facebook pages I follow. I thought it was so good that I had to share it here. This is pretty much my life as a reader in a nutshell. I never quite experiences 5 and 6 (okay, maybe 5 a bit), but otherwise, it is spot on. I could write endless posts (and I might), about 1 and 2 (heck I used to read underneath the blanket at night like this), you can read a good deal of blog posts about 3, 4 and 8 (there is even a cat on the image!) and of course I am now experiencing 9. And you, what do you think of it and what does your life experience as a reader look like?

Sunday, 7 May 2017

I took this picture in Brittany. It is a dolmen of course, which is, according to folklore, the place where Korrigans meet. My parents-in-law live in Brittany and it is at our last holidays there that I took this picture. Since little Wolfie is born, they have been wanting to greet us there again. Today, they have suggested that we go and visit them after their trip to England around July. We are very tempted, although there are a lot of things to solve before: Wolfie will need a passport, for one, and we need to know how to get from A to B to C with a baby. But if we can sort it out it would be good practice for future, longer journeys and it would be great to have Wolfie discover this land, rich of so many myths and legends that mean so much for his daddy, and spend time with his maternal grandparents.

Saturday, 6 May 2017

Now, I don't like going to shops and I only do shopping when it is absolutely necessary, but sometimes, just sometimes, I do fall into the trap of retail therapy. Which happened today. Maybe it is because I turned 40 and thus got into middle age, but I went to buy myself a Fitbit today, with money my parents and my in-law gave me. It is one of these watches that gives you your heartbeat and tells you to get active and how many calories you burned. My wife suggested it and I thought it was a great idea. That must be mid-life crisis. Probably amplified by what's happening in my life. Still, I feel weird doing this. Usually I buy book, not bleeding expensive fancy watches. Even with money that was meant to be used to spoil myself. On the plus side, I have a really cool watch.

Friday, 5 May 2017

My wife bought me a few nice presents for my 40th birthday, but she did not forget to make it also about my new status as a father. So she also bought me this book about my favourite composer and his work: Mozart, Little Musical Wonder. According to the label on the card, it was "from Wolfie," but I strongly suspect she bought it especially for Wolfie, so he can experience the Mozart effect. Which is okay, it makes me share with my son the greatest music. It is a very educational baby book: on each page you press a button to listen to bits of his work and you see funky cute animals representing opposites: tall versus short, young versus old, up versus down, etc. Very cute. And, like I said on this blog post and later on Facebook: "Not that we believe in the Mozart effect, but why take a chance?" This deserves to be a new great unknown line, I think. Anyway, the only drawback is that one can only hear part of the music, so tonight I will share one piece with you, his Clarinet Quintet. For once, a piece not taken from his operas. I hope you enjoy. Wolfie sure did. Okay, so he liked the giraffe and the monkey, but that's a start.

Thursday, 4 May 2017

I just did an atrocious word play, but I could not resist. Mother's Day has long been gone here in the UK, but it is coming in North America. Of course, David's Tea has a special Mother's Day Collection. So far so good, you know how much I love tea in general and David's Tea's accessories. I would love to offer them to my mother or my wife. There are three problems with this: 1)I live far away from any David's Tea shop, 2)while my wife loves pink and golden stuff like on this picture, my mother does not and 3)neither my wife nor my mother love tea. In fact, they both dislike it. Although I think my wife would gladly take one of the mugs just because it looks beautiful. And pink. Now it means something else: the tea education of little Wolfie will have to be done by me, when the time comes.

Wednesday, 3 May 2017

For reasons stated in my previous post, I might soon get more time to blog. Job hunting and interview preparations will keep me busy, but from experience I know this kind of situation also gives you some time for blogging. I hope not too much time, which is to say I will have a new job soon enough, but anyway. I started Vraie Fiction in 2008, unemployed, and it was a creative year for me, if nothing else.

Monday, 1 May 2017

I took this picture at the National Railway Museum in York and I am sharing it here as it sort of illustrates this post's subject. Last year, I was wondering about my next long train journey. Well, I have my answer now: tomorrow, as I am having job interview in a company's headquarters. Do not worry: I have prepared and this blog post is being written when I am having a break from all the planning. But overall, everything is ready (and yes, I am nervous nevertheless). But that also means that I will be traveling long hours. Which will give me plenty of time to read, especially on the way back. I am not looking forward to all that traveling in one day and I will miss my family sorely, but at least it will give me an opportunity to read a lot. And I love to read in a train. It will be my treat.

Since we moved in to our new home last year, we have kept a few things from the previous owners. Too many things maybe, but we were so busy and there was so much to do, we kept them by default. Among them, the curtains in our bedroom. Since the last few weeks, we started getting bothered by them: light gets through and it makes sleep difficult early in the morning. I wonder why we did not mind before. Maybe we were just too exhausted with the move then the baby, to notice, and then of course there were less and less daytime. But anyway, we bought new curtains yesterday, black out ones and this should finally be sorted. One should hope so.